Wireless XBOX controller keeps turning off
Symptom: your XBOX controller keeps turning off while you are playing; although it can be turned on instantly, but the mood is gone.
Cause: Firstly, check if batteries are empty or not. If not, it can be assumed that a contact in the battery compartment is moving. Thus your controller will shut off when the contact surface doesn’t touch the battery. It’s all about hardware, nothing is related to software or driver at all.
Solution: don’t try to bend the metal contact since it will be weaken the metal. What you need is something to put in underneath the metal contact and make sure of the contact will stay close to the battery at all time. Below figures are a dirty way to do so; it doesn’t look nice, but works nicely =)
Popularity: 1% [?]
Live: sign in with a single-use code
Microsoft might not be trend setter anymore these days, but they are working hard to be back. That’s for sure. Live Mail or hotmail is one of popular email in the world, regardless of how good it is. Once in a while I get in my account to check if there is any of my mail, besides loads of junk. Then I noticed something new, single-use code ??
It’s just like one-time password; use it and throw away. That’s for anyone who are concerned about leaking password on public network/computer. Yes, it’s pretty good idea, but is it practical? So I tried.
Above is what I got. My Google Voice number might be the cause of the issue, but if that’s the case, Microsoft should give up this option also.
Moreover, I hope to see Microsoft back in the game, but so far, Live Mail? ie? Zune HD?, Windows Phone 7? Windows Embedded Compact 7? I still don’t see a bright future for those yet. Firstly, they should have easier & more consistency name LOL.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Change Login Screen background in Windows 7
If you are sick of vanilla login screen background, there is a way to change =) You have to tweak in registry a bit though, Microsoft just made it easy for OEM partner only
First of all, you have to prepare your new background. Crop your image to 1:1 to your screen resolution. The catch is you should save your image not to be larger than 256kB. You might think it turns to crap one, but believe me that’s good enough =)
After getting an image you want, rename it to “backgroundDefault.jpg”. Then copy to the folder
%windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds
in case it doesn’t exist, create your own.
Secondly, enable the background in Registry, by getting into “regedit”
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
Create new key DWORD 32-bit, value 1 (1 as enable, 0 as disable) Also, if any of these doesn’t exist, create your own =)
That is it!, you may lock the computer and appreciate your personal login screen. Make your PC personal again!! lol
Popularity: unranked [?]
I’m not a big fan of customized desktop since I regularly clean up my OS every now and then. This is much easier way to spice up the feeling a bit =) Yeah, it’s free.
Also, it has a lot of interesting wallpapers which, of course, are nice. It’s like looking through Flickr with rotating desktop wallpaper, a feature which Microsoft eventually get after Apple has for many years
Check it out @ Personalized Gallery
Popularity: unranked [?]
Bing – re-badge Live Search
This is definitely not the breaking news. Microsoft just decided to change the word, Live, to “Bing” I don’t know if Bing is so much better word or anything. Will Live suite which is great change its name to Bing suite as well? They claimed that Bing uses new algorithm or whatever to achieve better performance; we probably don’t care either. What we care is whether “our keyword” can generate the result we want or not.
After trying for a while, I don’t see anything much interesting or persuasive enough to convince me that it’s much more than a re-brand & putting useless features like category, search history. I honestly don’t know if you feel the same way, to me, search is built to destroy any classified, categorized data since if you do arrange stuffs neatly, you don’t need search, but if you do need “search, “ then you have no need of organizing them [that includes others’ stuffs which is categorized in the different ways of your brain]
In short, if Bing couldn’t change attitude about putting more and more bots for much larger coverage, like Google, and try to get most out of those huge database, they are not going to be even close to the first choice. Don’t think Google is the only competitor here. Yahoo, which gives the results much different than Google, might be much better alternative to Google rather than old archive search like Bing.
ps. I really feel sorry for Microsoft that they have soo much potential in every ways, but they couldn’t come up with the ace solution to the market. They might need to re-organize or something to aim their goals much more efficient. For instance, if they happen to amalgamate all E-mail clients’ teams such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Mail, Outlook Express, Outlook 2007, into only 1 e-mail client—might be 2 sub-divisions: web-based & desktop-based. I believe they can have GMail-equivalent easily. But, they are dividing into small groups to achieve in everything as far as the products go. Consequently they just divide themselves… and think of it as a good plan. Hurr what a waste..
Popularity: 3% [?]
Adblock plus like on IE8 with InPrivate Filtering
Although I don’t use IE8 that much, it’s good to see how to implement adblock in IE. You will see it work like a charm as you experienced with Adblock plus on Firefox. It’s actually a feature in InPrivate mode (aka. porn mode) called Private Filtering. You may add rule yourself, but anony101 from dslreports.com did the list for you to import easily.
How to:-
1. Enter InPrivate mode in IE8 (Ctrl + Shift + P)
2. Menu: Safety | InPrivate Filtering Settings
3. Get into Advanced Settings
4. Then import this file "rules.xml"
You are now good to go! You will find that ad is gone in InPrivate mode. However, how about normal mode? All ads still there. If you like to enable this feature, you gotta get yourself into Registry Editor.
1. Start | Run "regedit”
2. Add “DWORD 32-bit” entry named StartMode with value 1 as shown below.
Start your IE again, you will see InPrivate Filtering Feature is on and available in normal mode too. You can always disable and enable at all time or by shortcut Ctrl + Shift + F
Well, it works =) Happy surfing without any extra stuff.
Popularity: 3% [?]
ie8 released finally
Although I’m Firefox user, I don’t deny ie8 still the first choice for many folks. Now it’s eventually out of RC. I honestly don’t know if there are any change much.
After trying for a while, there is InPrivate Filtering feature which I still can’t figure out what it is for. Developer tools also is really nice, but I still like to see adblock plus kind of thing, but it probably won’t be real anytime soon. One thing I could tell so far is it’s *much faster*. For example, when ctrl + t in the past, it will be few seconds lag before new tab will be usable. However, this final release does the job; open new tab instantly. That’s good enough for second web browser to me =)
Update yours at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx
Popularity: 2% [?]
Is Vista Home Basic enough?
One of the most requests in Windows 7 blog is to eliminate the least popular version – less features version. In the past, I had used Windows XP Home all the time and I had no single issue with it. No remote connection? No sort of professional utilities? Not an issue for me. It’s probably I didn’t play with network or things much. However, in Vista, Home Basic version is cut off the most eye-candy feature—Aero interface—out. What else has been cut off? Remote connection, Windows Media Center, tablet PC feature, domain network, Virtualization, encryption, and bla bla bla are not what regular folks use (or even know if they are existed) anyway.
To see what Vista Home Basic has; pretty basic interface, system restore (w/o shadow copy service) and backup and restore center (w/o network capability). Missing Windows Media Center can be easily fixed by installing ffmpeg codec or using VLC. Therefore, only real missing feature is Aero!
Well, after talking of only what we miss, is there anything we gain using Vista Home Basic? Yes! there is at least one—energy-wise. The basic interface really shines when using on the battery. About at least a watt less than Aero interface. No gain, no pain, huh? My GF who has Vista Home Basic on her Thinkpad won’t allow me to install left over Vista Ultimate license on because she doesn’t think that she would get any better (performance-wise) She has all she needs; that’s what she claims.
If you don’t care much about transparent window border, Vista Home Basic is enough for you absolutely and so far I don’t see any reason cutting out affordable/cheap version. Just please make it cheap enough for 3rd world countries, hey! $100 in Thailand is almost 4-week paycheck for non-degree folks, if you like to know.
Reference: Below is what Home Basic misses. [Full comparison matrix at mydigitallife.info]
Feature Home Basic Home Premium Business Enterprise Ultimate Themed Slide Shows Yes Yes Windows Media Center with CableCard support Yes Yes Windows DVD Maker Yes Yes Windows Movie Maker HD Yes Yes Scheduled Backup of User Files Yes Yes Yes Yes Backup User Files to Network Device Yes Yes Yes Yes Network Projection Yes Yes Yes Yes Presentation Settings Yes Yes Yes Yes PC to PC Sync Yes Yes Yes Yes Windows Aero User Interface with Glass Yes Yes Yes Yes Windows ShadowCopy Yes Yes Yes Yes Windows SideShow Yes Yes Yes Yes Windows Tablet PC Features Yes Yes Yes Yes New Premium Games Yes Yes* Yes* Yes Administrator Control Over Installation of Device Drivers Yes Yes Yes Centralized Power Management through Group Policy Yes Yes Yes Client-Side Caching Yes Yes Yes Complete System Image-based Backup and Recovery Yes Yes Yes Dual (2) Processors (Sockets) Support Yes Yes Yes Desktop Deployment Tools for Managed Networks Yes Yes Yes Domain Join for Windows Server Yes Yes Yes Encrypting File System Yes Yes Yes Folder Redirection Yes Yes Yes Group Policy Support Yes Yes Yes Integrated Smart Card management Yes Yes Yes Network Access Protection Client Agent Yes Yes Yes Offline Files and Folder Support Yes Yes Yes Pluggable Logon Authentication Architecture Yes Yes Yes Policy-based Quality of Service (QoS) for Networking Yes Yes Yes Previous Versions Yes Yes Yes Roaming User Profiles Yes Yes Yes Virtual PC Express Yes Yes Yes Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) Client Yes Yes Yes Wireless network provisioning Yes Yes Yes Windows Fax and Scan Yes Yes* Yes* Internet Information Server Yes* Yes* Yes* All 35 Worldwide User Interface Languages Available Yes Yes Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications Yes Yes Support for Simultaneous Installation of Multiple User Interface Languages Yes Yes Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption Yes Yes Windows Ultimate Extras Yes Windows Anytime Upgrade Yes Yes Yes Yes Remote Desktop Client Only Client Only Host & Client Host & Client Host & Client Simultaneous SMB peer network connections 5 10 10 10 10 Maximum RAM supported with 32-bit processor-based system 4GB 4GB 4GB 4GB 4GB Maximum RAM supported with 64-bit processor-based system 8GB 16GB 128+GB 128+GB 128+GBPopularity: 2% [?]
Windows Live 2009 suite BETA is up for grab
Everything is new; from the installer which is much smarter to install what they are needed rather than giving us some unuseful info & help. Live Messenger, Live Writer, Live Photo Gallery, and Live Movie maker are completely redesign. Although I am yet to find any significant improvement for Live Writer besides Photo album, it is much easier to recognize non-blogging content manager like Drupal. I like that =) For messenger, it’s supported new animation display and is much cleaner UI.
They all are quite cool update; check them out here.
Added 1/16/2009: you can grab standalone installer here; about 134MB total.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Bypass Windows XP/Vista/Win7 login screen
If you prefer the fast way (less secure), Vista does provide an easy GUI for configure this.
Here is the what you have to call. I just wonder why they don’t provide this in normal User Account page. Then you just to select the account you want to access automatically, then uncheck this:-
It will ask you a password of the selected account. Then next time, you restart the computer, you will never have to put a password anymore
Update before Win 7 launch (Oct 19, 2009): Although this command works with Vista and XP, it doesn’t seem to work with Windows 7. The alternative is using ‘netplwiz‘ instead of ‘control userpasswords2′ and yes, netplwiz works on Vista and XP too. Quite good, huh?
Popularity: 100% [?]
